Plumber's son attended Hunter College, became a Xerox quality control engineer in 1965. Carpooled to business school at Columbia U. with investor Mario Gabelli. Took job at Goldman Sachs in investment research, eventually ran asset management division. Created hedge fund firm Omega Advisors in 1991. Today Omega manages $3 billion in assets, down from $5 billion last year. Said to have returned 14% net of fees annually. On board of Damon Runyon Cancer Research Foundation.